IN-DEPTH FEATURESFifty Years for Chinuch Atzmai — A Special Interview
with Rav Henoch Cohen, director of Chinuch Atzmai in America
for 50 years

by Binyomin Y. Rabinowitz

Part I

It was quite by chance. A brief encounter which this writer
had with Rav Henoch Cohen from America, led to a succession
of meetings and riveting talks, in the course of which we
were treated to a vast and comprehensive survey of the
history of Chinuch Atzmai, and how the gedolei
Yisroel, led by HaRav Aaron Kotler, joined the battle for
the souls, faith and religiosity of the Jewish children in
the Holy Land.

We listened to a series of enthralling stories about the
painstaking efforts and labor that the gedolei
Yisroel, who carried on their shoulders the immense
responsibility of guarding the pure Yiddishe chinuch,
invested in this sacred task.

Alongside these gedolim and tzaddikim, there
was a long line of enthusiastic and dedicated activists who
dedicated their lives for the community and for the
individual. But without a doubt the central and dominant
figure in this whole operation was and is Rav Henoch
Cohen.

Before we bring in Reb Henoch's fascinating stories, let us
quickly sum up the history of those years that led the
gedolei Yisroel, those great and lofty personalities,
establish, with so much sweat and toil, the glorious Torah
education system in Eretz Yisroel known as Chinuch
Atzmai.

Those were unbearably harsh and bitter years. Survivors of
the Holocaust began arriving in Eretz Yisroel at the
same time as the huge aliyahs from the Eastern countries
began to come in, and it was obvious that there was a need to
act quickly and with absolute determination to save their
children for Torah and Judaism for on the other side, the
secular parties were doing everything in their power to bring
the children under their influence.

The first government crises all centered on one issue:
education. Especially well-known are the appalling stories of
the cutting off of the payos of those precious
children. It was nothing less than a campaign to take away
their Yiddishkeit. The Labor movement had basically
imbibed all the influences of the Communist revolution, and
consequently the Labor party was born, whose moves and
actions all had their roots in that atheistic ideology.

The conditions for employment were: If you give your child to
our education system you will get work. The battle was
fierce, but the opportunities for rescue were also great. At
this critical juncture, the Chinuch Atzmai came into
being.

However, the struggle to get the funds to establish it and
then to keep it going had started long before, during the
period of the British Mandate. Even back then those who were
involved had to battle for recognition and for funds for the
chareidi institutions.

With the establishment of the State, the struggle continued
with the goal of gaining recognition of the "fourth stream"
of Agudas Yisroel. At first the education was organized in
four separate educational "streams" that were each associated
with a different political party. One was run by the Labor
Movement, another by the General Zionist Stream (the right
wing), a third by Mizrachi and the "fourth stream" was
associated with Agudath Yisroel. After a relatively short
time, the government decided to abolish the "stream-based"
education system and institute a general government education
system with religious and non-religious alternatives
(mamalachti-dati and mamlachti). Chinuch Atzmai
was an outgrowth of what had previously been the Fourth
Stream.

A fascinating personality who worked with endless dedication
during those years was HaRav Hillel Lieberman, who then
served as managing director of the Chinuch Atzmai center.
From the very first days of its inception, he was associated
with the establishment of the largest and most significant
center for Torah education in the Holy Land.

HaRav Lieberman also founded and established the central Bais
Yaakov network, as well as the organization of Bnos Bais
Yaakov-Batya. In a conversation we had with him a few years
back, he told of the tremendous difficulties they encountered
during those years in which he managed to maintain the
chareidi schools only with the utmost hardship.

"Every first of the month [when it was time to pay the
teacher and staff salaries] the Lutzker Rov, HaRav Zalman
Sorotzkin, would cry bitterly to HaRav Aharon Kotler over the
phone, saying: `What do they all want from me? I am old and
sick.' That was his maxim. Reb Aharon, who was dedicated
heart and soul to Chinuch Atzmai, would raise the money in
the Diaspora and send it over here so we could pay the
salaries."

For two years HaRav Hillel kept the movement going. The
majority of his work consisted of arranging the transfer of
the schools that had been previously counted within the
fourth stream (Agudas Yisroel) to the official and recognized
status of Chinuch Atzmai schools, which was a far- from-easy
matter.

The government put up enormous obstacles, including a complex
bureaucracy, but Rebbe Hillel said that the great majority of
schools (aside from two or three) that were in the fourth
stream, eventually transferred to Chinuch Atzmai.

School Year 5714

The studies in the first school year of the founding of
Chinuch Atzmai (at the close of the year 5713) began about a
month after the opening of the school year, but even
afterwards there was no shortage of difficulties. The
director of the Ministry of Education in those days, Yaakov
Sarid (the father of former MK Yossi Sarid), ordered five of
the schools to close down and to merge with the State
Religious schools, when the schools did not turn in their
paperwork on time.

A few months beforehand, in the summer of 5713, a law was
passed in the Knesset which abolished the different streams
in education, and at that point the State Education system
was instituted, with one of its branches being the State
Religious education. The gedolim of the generation,
within the context of Agudas Yisroel, vehemently objected to
being included in the State Religious education, and decided
to launch Chinuch Atzmai, and,with this goal in mind,
prepared themselves for the coming year.

Most of the Agudas Yisroel teachers remained within this
system, although they recognized the difficulties that they
faced—problems with salaries, social stipulations, work
conditions (study rooms, equipment), etc. — and joined
Chinuch Atzmai. But there were also those who feared for
their future, which was somewhat shaky in Chinuch Atzmai, and
joined the State Religious education system. Some even
transferred the schools that they headed.

The burden of founding Chinuch Atzmai fell on the shoulders
of the Gaon, HaRav Aharon Kotler. It was he who had
established the yoke of Torah in America on a large scale. He
felt a tremendous sense of responsibility not only for what
went on over there in America, but also for what was
happening in Eretz Hakodesh. To this end, he enlisted
the aid of the Kapishnitzer Rebbe, HaRav Moshe Feinstein,
philanthropists, community activists, and anyone who was able
to help, for this sacred task.

And he also brought in Rav Henoch Cohen.

He asked him to come and help out for a short time, but those
few months turned out to be more than 50 years. "During that
time he did everything. I only took him wherever he asked to
go, and then all I had left to do was to collect the money
and the checks, and transfer them to Israel," relates Reb
Henoch.

In those days, Rav Cohen was a talmid at Yeshivas
Torah Vodaas. The rosh yeshiva HaRav Gedaliah Shor
begged R' Henoch to go to California with HaRav Simcha
Wasserman, the son of HaRav Elchonon Wasserman, and establish
a Torah center there. He chose ten bochurim, ten of
his foremost talmidim, and sent them over there. Rav
Henoch was asked by his rosh yeshiva to organize the opening
of the mesivta (as the high school level education was
commonly called in America).

That is how the yeshiva Or Elchonon was set up in California.
"I was then still a bochur, though not that young
actually. But when the Rosh Yeshiva decided to appoint me for
that sacred mission, I took it upon myself. We opened the
mesivta with 14 bar-mitzvah-age boys, and I taught
them gemora. I was there for two and a half years, and
it was just before Pesach when I came home to New York. My
mother asked me to stay in town until Elul for shidduch
purposes, because in those days the journey from New York
to California was very long."

One week after Pesach—Rebbe Henoch recalls that it was
the 27th of Nisan, 5715—he got a call from HaRav Aharon
Kotler. "Rebbe Aharon had a talmid whose name was
Yaakov Weisberg. He was his right-hand man. He was one of the
founders of Pe'elim in America. He was also at Torah Umesora.
Whatever good thing was going on in America at the time, he
was involved in.

"He had known me from childhood, and he was the one who
recommended to Reb Aharon that I be asked to join the Chinuch
Atzmai operation. Reb Aharon followed his recommendation and
telephoned me, saying that since he had heard that I was
going to stay at least until Elul, and since they were
planning to host the first dinner for Chinuch Atzmai, he
would like me to join the operation for three months to help
organize the dinner."

The dinner was supposed to take place a few days after
Succos, but in the end it was delayed and was held in Teves,
5716. But for Rebbe Henoch, the "delay" went on for a good
many years more — which turned into a yovel!
From then until this day, Reb Henoch Cohen has borne the
massive burden of responsibility as director and
representative of Chinuch Atzmai in America, a role he has
filled with great dedication as well as with enormous
success.

From that first dinner, the system of collecting donations
for Chinuch Atzmai moved into high gear. According to Rav
Henoch, whereas in those days they might send ten thousand
dollars a month (in the terms of those days it was about
40,000 lirot, with the remainder of the monthly budget
being 60,000 lirot from government funding), to enable
the teachers and rebbes to be paid, it was not long before
the scope of the aid and donations took on very significant
proportions. Indeed, a sizable portion of the budget for
Chinuch Atzmai now comes from donations from American
philanthropists.

"The entire burden of raising those ten thousand dollars that
were sent to Israel every month was on Reb Aharon's
shoulders," relates R' Henoch. "I was just his emissary,
that's all. I remember how, when I first started working with
him, he enlisted the aid of philanthropist Rabbi Binyomin
Citron from Brazil who agreed to transfer ten thousand
dollars annually. One day Reb Aharon heard that he was
staying at his brother's home in New York. He phoned me and
said: `Reb Binyomin is here. We have to go to him
immediately.' "

At the time, Reb Aharon was spending about half the week in
New York. On Thursdays he would travel to Lakewood and stay
until motzei Shabbos. There, he would deliver his
famous shiur. By Monday morning he was back in New
York.

Reb Aharon asked R' Henoch to call up the Kapishnitzer Rebbe
so he could come to the meeting too. "Reb Aharon never went
to those meetings alone. He always asked one of the other
gedolim to go with him. He told me: `He is now at his
brother's office in Manhattan. I will take the Borough Park
subway to Manhattan. Make sure the Kapishnitzer Rebbe gets
there too.' "

Reb Aharon quickly boarded the subway, while R' Henoch
hurried to the Kapishnitzer Rebbe's home and the two of them
took the bus to the office building where Reb Binyomin Citron
was visiting. Reb Aharon arrived there at the same time, and
all three went upstairs to the meeting, at the end of which
Reb Aharon was given his ten thousand dollar donation.

At the end of the meeting, Reb Henoch aimed to order a taxi
to take the Kapishnitzer Rebbe back to his home. "The price
of a taxi was no more than two dollars. But the Rebbe would
not agree. `Do you know what a person could do with two
dollars?' he said. `There are Jews who could live for a whole
Shabbos on that amount.' I thought of ordering a taxi to take
Reb Aharon back, but he would not hear of it either: `I am
going back on the subway. But you, Henoch, run to the bank
right now and transfer the money to Israel, then send a
telegram that the money has been sent over,' he said."

R' Henoch then recalled an appendix to this wonderful story:
"This is a story that has to be written about, so that people
will see how the gedolim related to every dollar. And
every cent."

It was erev Yom Kippur of that same year. Succos was
coming up and in Eretz Yisroel the teachers still had
not been paid. That forty thousand lirot that they had
promised to transfer had still not been sent over.

"The Kapishnitzer Rebbe phoned me and said, that Reb Aharon
had come to him and requested that he take a loan of five
thousand dollars. He would take care to get the second half
of the amount from the people who were helping him. That way
the money to pay the salaries could be transferred. He asked
me to come over, and I quickly made my way to his home in
Manhattan.

"When I got there, he told me that around Shavuos time, Reb
Aharon had come to him when he did not have the funds he
needed to send to Israel and consequently he had taken a loan
from one of his friends then. `That loan I have still not
paid back. If I take another loan now, I am worried that I
would not be able to pay it back. I am very afraid of taking
another loan.'

"As I said, it all took place on erev Yom Kippur.
Lying on the Rebbe's table was a pile of kvittlach,
money and checks. You could say that for him, the pile
contained an amount large enough to support his household for
at least six months, and that was what it was earmarked to
do.

"Then he took a large shopping bag and swept the whole pile
inside the basket with his hand, and he said: `Henoch, make a
list of how much money you have here, and send the money
immediately to Israel. Don't worry about me. I will have
enough to eat for Yom Tov. I will get through the Yom Tov,
with Hashem's help. But you be quick now and send that money
over so that they can pay the teachers' salaries.'

I stood there in a state of complete shock. It was impossible
to believe what he had just done. Later on, when I went over
the checks, it came to almost exactly the right amount of
that five thousand dollars that Reb Aharon had asked him to
take as a loan."

That episode affected me like an electric shock, seeing how a
person could give away what he had to live on for the next
six months. But since Jewish children were learning Torah and
their rebbes needed money for the chagim and for their
parnossoh he put aside all his personal considerations
and needs!"

We asked Rav Henoch whether this money was in the category of
a loan, or was it money given as a donation?

"It definitely was not a loan. He never once asked us to give
it back," relates Reb Henoch. "Everything that was beneficial
and that was important, every action for Torah, chinuch
and chessed, he was a part of. It is impossible to
describe the extent to which he stood behind Chinuch Atzmai
during those years."

Asking for a Brochoh

He also told another wonderful story which illustrates more
than anything else the unique character of the Kapishnitzer
Rebbe.

"That year Reb Aharon needed to travel to a special meeting
which was held in Montreal for the Lakewood Yeshiva. He did
not travel around by plane; rather he used trains. Only when
he went to Israel did he travel by plane. He was worried
about the danger involved and therefore would never agree to
fly within the United States.

"By evening he was already supposed to be at the train
station, and I went in to see him only a very short time
before his departure. He asked me to phone the Kapishnitzer
Rebbe. When I got through to him, he took the telephone and
told the Rebbe that he was going to a meeting for the
yeshiva, and he asked him for a brochoh. I stared at
him in astonishment.

"Reb Aharon noticed my surprise and remarked: `You only know
the Kapishnitzer Rebbe in matters connected with Chinuch
Atzmai. Just for what he does for Chinuch Atzmai alone it is
worth asking for a brochoh from him, but I know him
from other standpoints too. His brochoh is important
and very effective.' "

HaRav Aharon's Dedication to Chinuch
Atzmai

Did you ever hear Reb Aharon say why he was so completely
dedicated to Chinuch Atzmai?

Reb Henoch: "I heard that he once replied to someone from
whom he had asked for help for Chinuch Atzmai, who had asked
him why he was so devoted to this cause, like this: `The
shver (HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer) told me that the
entire future of Torah and Jewish life in Eretz Yisroel
depend on the success of Chinuch Atzmai.'

"In the minutes of the first meeting that was held for the
launching of Chinuch Atzmai led by HaRav Isser Zalman, there
was some discussion over how the administration was to be
constituted, and he persisted in his stance that all trends
in chareidi Judaism had to collaborate, since he saw it as an
issue for Klal Yisroel. Reb Aharon told me to follow
suit when I organized the Chinuch Atzmai administration in
the United States."

Reb Henoch has at the tip of his tongue a multitude of
stories about the incredible dedication of Reb Aharon to
Chinuch Atzmai.

"For the first nine years that I was involved in it, I was
just completely working around the clock. All day and all
night — for Reb Aharon worked at it day and night
without a break. He did not let me rest one minute. Let me
tell you how far this went.

"I have an aunt who lives in Detroit. When her first child
was born, my late father very much wanted to go to the
bris, but he did not travel on airplanes. The bris
was supposed to take place on Shabbos, and he asked me to
go in his stead. I approached Reb Aharon and told him that I
had been asked to fly to Detroit, and would need to be absent
from the city, since it was an issue of kibbud av. One
member of the family had to go to the bris, at
least.

"Reb Aharon began to extend his warmest brochos to the
family and the newborn baby. `But we have a tremendous amount
of work over here. You have to be here.' Then he thought a
little and said: `Oh, but on Sunday there is supposed to be a
meeting at the yeshiva in Cleveland for Chinuch Atzmai. Can
you make it afterwards to Cleveland from Detroit? Well if you
are going for Chinuch Atzmai as well, then certainly you can
go!' That was Reb Aharon!"

In those days, no proper office had yet been set up for
Chinuch Atzmai in America. The person who set himself to that
task was the famous community leader, Rabbi Zeev Wolfson, and
Rav Henoch worked from his office.

After a few weeks, Rav Zeev went up to Reb Aharon and told
him: "Rav Henoch is not forceful enough in asking for
donations. He has to be more aggressive. Stronger."

Reb Aharon reassured him: "He will get into the job, and when
the responsibility is on his shoulders, don't worry, then he
will demand. And aggressively."

"Reb Aharon always gave me his full backing if anybody had
any complaints. It is only natural that people would have
their complaints here and there — especially when you
are dealing with baalei batim and public activists.
But he always took the responsibility upon himself throughout
the nine years that I worked with him, and that was a period
of intensive, nonstop work. But I cannot begin to describe
his calmness and his tranquility.

"When I traveled to Eretz Yisroel for shidduch
purposes, he told me: `If you find a shidduch
there do not worry about anything. Just stay there until
after the wedding and then come back and we will see to it
that you have a parnossoh as well.'

"And that is what in fact happened. I called him up and asked
him what to do, and he told me to stay. When I came back, he
insisted that I receive a salary that would be enough for me
to live on and support a family.

"As a bochur I had received around one hundred dollars
a month. After the wedding he told me, `Now you need money
for rent too,' which was then just over a hundred dollars by
itself."

Reb Aharon went to members of the administration and ordered
them to pay Rav Henoch another one hundred and thirty five
dollars a month. After the birth of his first son, R' Aharon
applied to activists at one of the meetings of the
administration and told them: "Pay him a salary of one
hundred and seventy five dollars from now on. He really needs
it for the expenses of his child." He added, "He is so
dedicated to his work. When a person is really dedicated, it
is worth it, no matter what he is paid."

Rav Henoch witnessed countless situations when Reb Aharon
showed a great deal more concern and dedication to Chinuch
Atzmai than to his own yeshiva. Thus, it happened that when
many wealthy people came to Lakewood and its suburbs during
the summer to escape the blazing hot New York City summers,
they would pour in with money for the yeshiva. But Reb Aharon
would urge Rav Henoch to get those Jews to give to Chinuch
Atzmai. He did the same when special meetings were arranged
to raise money for the yeshiva.

"I still remember the hesped that the Lutzker Rov,
HaRav Z. Sorotzkin, gave after Reb Aharon's passing. He said:
`The world thinks that we run Chinuch Atzmai.' The
administration was at the time HaRav Zalman, HaRav Yechezkel
Abramsky, HaRav Yechezkel Sarna, the Beis Yisroel. `But it is
not us. It was all him!'

Letter to HaRav Z. Sorotzkin on Chinuch Atzmai and against
secular studies, and explaining the danger of secular
studies.

I am deeply distressed about all the turmoil which has come
about over the problems with the ninth grade class. It is
justified, because there is a real danger that it will be
difficult for them to continue on to the real yeshivas, for
they have preparation for regular high school, and it looks
as if they have the haskomoh of the gedolim who
are the leaders [of Chinuch Atzmai].

Certainly, there would be no danger involved if it were all
just the beginning of yeshiva ketanoh, that is,
without secular studies. However, it seems that it is
impossible to arrange things in any other way, since they get
help from the government—and perhaps that is the way
they want it.

My advice is that your honor and HaRav Sarna and their
friends stop it, because besides the fact of the great loss
to Torah, it entails a loss to the Chinuch [Atzmai] since
those who oppose it in Torah circles will resign from the
Education Committee.

Aside from this, it gives an opening to those who oppose the
Chinuch [Atzmai] because it is well known that they like to
attack the Chinuch and its leaders. They do it now, as it is,
with lies and untrue claims, but this will give them a good
claim.

Perhaps you could influence the administration of Sinai
[school] to stop this move, and please make every effort to
ensure that no new members leave the Education
Committee— those from last year— for it will pose
a danger to all the Chinuch and the other members. One can
use the help of these groups to improve the spiritual
supervision of all the places.